Talking Heads is a brand new Innovationintextiles.com column, which features exclusive interviews with the industry’s movers and shakers. This Talking Heads features an interview with Markus Zöllner, new owner of TWD Fibres, a fully integrated filament yarn producer and spinning specialist.

What is your assessment with regards to the envisaged goal after four months of intensive involvement with TWD Fibres?

MZ: I am truly impressed by the broad product variety, that TWD Fibres is covering with polyester and polyamide 6.6. Also the depth of the value chain in the subsequent further processing is enormous.

We have a huge diversified machinery park at our hands and therefore we are able to fulfil the various requirements of our customers and deliver the broad spectrum of different products.

How do you judge the overall textile market?

MZ: As many other markets, the classical textile market is characterized by increased competition. This is the reason why TWD Fibres has already successfully built up new sales markets in the field of technical textiles in the past. In the meantime the company is very well represented in automotive and medical. Nevertheless clothing and home textiles are still of prime importance to TWD Fibres in terms of sales. Price pressure is extremely high in this sector and obliges us in return to follow a strict cost control. We see promising potential in the earlier mentioned technical textiles sales markets.

The market and its players are expected to further consolidate. Therefore we keep our eyes wide open to further acquire equity holdings or even other companies. We are in preliminary discussion at the moment. It is imperative to find the right balance between commodity products and individual specialties.

Could you explain your strategy? Where would you like to see TWD Fibres in three years from now?

MZ: As I already mentioned we think about purchasing further companies. First of all we have to resolve our internal issues. We have a true competitive advantage: We cover the entire value chain and are able to offer everything from spinning towards texturising and dyeing from a single source under one and the same roof. This makes us strong. And this is precisely where we come in: In order to offer our customers an even better service, we strive to continuously optimize the internal procedures and workflows. To achieve this goal we reinforce our marketing efforts and improve our product development. We want our products to even better meet the requirements of our customers. Furthermore this will lead to a variety of novelties in technical textiles and other areas. At the same time we are working at expanding our competitive strength in volume segments. Our vertical integration covering the entire yarn processing value chain is an excellent basis for this ambitious goal.

Which actions are you considering for TWD Fibres at the moment?

MZ: Based on our previous analyses we introduced several optimizations and investments. Let me give a few examples: The newly implemented CRM system provides a better customer service, the preventive maintenance of the machinery park ensures the high quality of the production and the ongoing training of our employees maintains our high level of innovation. Within the framework of our restructuring management all costs are continuously scrutinized. We carried out several negotiations with suppliers and service providers.

We were obliged to adjust the internal workforce when capacities were too high. Now we are steering the right course. We want to continue offering our customers stability and reliability. TWD Fibres has a high degree of reputation in Europe with brands like TIMBRELLE (Polyamid 6.6) and DIOLEN (Polyester).

Are you planning fundamental changes with that?

MZ: Thanks to longstanding successful business relationships TWD Fibres generates almost 50 percent of its revenue abroad. We surely want to further develop our umbrella brand TWD Fibres and our product brands. Especially with a growing competition coming from Asia, brands are most appropriate to convey a sense of orientation and serve as a strong anchor point for the company and their customers. For the benefit of our customers we are going to expand our marketing efforts.

Let me conclude by emphasizing that we triggered several processes that are all geared to reinforce the company and enhance further growth. We are looking forward to experience the perception of our customers and to see, how they judge the new measures and approaches, hoping that those may foster our longstanding good business relationships.

Leader in filament yarn production

Since January 2015 TWD Fibres is part of holding company 4 K Invest International with headquarters in Munich. The declared objective of the new owner is to further expand the national and international market position of TWD Fibres as a specialist in filament yarns. The company employs about 730 staff and generates an annual turnover of more than EUR 100 million.

As a fully integrated producer and specialist for filament yarns located in Deggendorf, Bavaria, TWD Fibres covers the entire range of polyester and polyamide 6.6 filament yarns. With an average annual production capacity of 15,000 tons each for polyester and polyamide, TWD Fibres is a global partner for texturized, package or dope dyed customized yarn solutions.

TWD Fibres has one of the biggest dye houses in Europe with more than 5,000 tons of dyeing capacity per year. The most important application markets are automotive (car interior textiles), clothing, home textiles and medical, as well as technical applications.

www.twd-fibres.de